Factors Contributing to Successful Spontaneous Dog–Human Cooperation

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Dogs are undeniably capable of effective cooperation with humans, whether their task is herding, hunting, or assisting disabled people. However, the factors influencing family dogs’ spontaneous tendency to cooperate remains unexplored. Our aim was to investigate if breed function, training experience, and owner-reported social motivation level were associated with successful spontaneous dog–owner cooperation. We tested family dogs from different breed groups (non-working dogs, cooperative/independent working breeds), with various training backgrounds in a cooperative task, in which they had to work together with their owners to achieve a common goal. We measured whether dogs paid attention to their partner, understood the problem situation, and were willing to help their owners. Breed groups had no significant effect on the dogs’ behaviour. Dogs with high training levels and high social motivation were more attentive and more cooperative. This implies that in future studies, special attention should be dedicated to consider the subjects’ training background and social motivation. Our findings emphasise the need for test procedures that do not rely on specific trained skills of the dogs. ABSTRACT: Dogs’ ability to cooperate with humans is widely acknowledged, but the factors influencing their spontaneous cooperative tendencies are largely unknown. We investigated whether breed function, training experience, and owner-reported social motivation level contribute to spontaneous dog–owner cooperation. Family dogs (N = 100) of three breed groups (non-working dogs, cooperative/independent working breeds) with various training experiences were tested in an ‘out–of–reach’ task with their owners as their partners, who never directly asked for help during the test. We measured dogs’ behaviour along three main components of successful cooperation: paying attention, understanding the problem, and willingness to cooperate. Breed groups had no significant effect on dogs’ behaviour. No factor was associated with the behavioural variables related to not understanding the task. Dogs with high training levels and high social motivation showed more attention-related behaviours and were more likely to help the owner (training level and social motivation were not correlated with each other). Our results highlight the importance of training experience and social motivation in dogs’ attentiveness and spontaneous cooperativity. This also points to the need for careful sample balancing and experimental procedures that do not rely on specific trained skills.